So far, that has proven to be a very steep challenge for most exchanges. Kraken is a notorious example of this, as its service has degraded quite severely in the past 12-18 months. With orders not being filled, trades not being executed, and a wide range of error messages being encountered when accessing the platform, scaling is its top priority right now. Although Kraken had planned to introduce some big changes in December 2017, it seems not much has happened yet.

Rather than shutting down its service or preventing users from signing up, Bitstamp has taken active steps to counter these problems well in advance. More specifically, the company has hired additional staff members. It is unclear if this was just for customersupport purposes, but that seems likely. Additionally, the improvement of the site’s overall infrastructure will require additional manpower over time. Business is picking up for Bitstamp and its competitors; that much is rather evident.

Moreover, the company announced several undisclosed “operational changes”. For the time being, it remains unclear what these entail exactly, but we can only assume they will ensure that Bitstamp’s services remain operational at all times. Whether or not this platform can be more successful than Coinbase in this regard has yet to be determined. Coinbase has suffered from wire transfer issues, cryptocurrency deposit and withdrawal delays, and lengthy ID verification procedures.

All things considered, it is good to see Bitstamp take a proactive approach to handling these issues before they become problematic. Whether or not Bitstamp’s current countermeasures will be sufficient is very hard to predict. If cryptocurrency’s popularity continues to accelerate, a lot of companies may struggle to cope with demand despite their best intentions.